small house or a large flat - help me decide

[colabottles21]

Have just sold our house during the lockdown and are contemplating our next move. DH got a job in London and will have to be onsite three days a week so the plan is to move there. The only snag is that on our budget we can really only afford a very small house in an ok-ish area or a big flat in a really nice one. Have only one DS so schools are important as is the general feel of the area. Would it really be too weird for our next move to be a flat? Or do we have to settle for a much smaller house in a less nice area? London prices are crazy and I didn't think that we'd be contemplating this in our 40s but the new job is great and it would be too much of an opportunity to miss it. But having never lived in London we just don't seem to have as much equity as everyone else here.

Has anyone successfully lived in a flat with DCs? Did you end up moving to a house after all? Was it weird to be living in a flat if everyone else had a house? Am clearly overthinking this and am just trying to sort out what I think and what is feasible.

www.commutefrom.co.uk may help with your search, if you do not have/want to live centrally

Living in a flat will be fine, it's very common in London. If all other things were equal, a freehold house would be better, but generally going for a flat would mean that you can afford to be in a better catchment for schools, and have better transport links.

I would look very carefully at school catchments (depending on how old your DS is - if he's already school aged then you might never get a place at a popular school even if you moved very close). And then very carefully at the commute. If you can manage to find something on a direct line it will make the travel much less stressful. With your budget, you wouldn't have to live too far out in the suburbs, and then you can make the most of London life.

This flat in Wapping would be walking distance and is close to outstanding schools
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/96765575#/

Bow would also be a nice area which would have flats in your budget.
e.g. www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/76744401#/

We chose the large flat in a nice area and haven't regretted it yet, 3 years on. Caveats: our nice area includes loads of public outdoor space so we haven't really missed a garden even in lockdown, and we're in Scotland where leasehold isn't a thing.

Our neighbours with older primary aged kids let them play out in the park across the road where they can mostly be seen from the window and have more space to kick a ball about than a normal garden - I really don't think they're missing out on anything.

We live in a flat in a nice area of London, if we wanted to buy a house in the same area we would need to spend around £1.2 million.

Our flat is 1,800 square foot, it has three generous bedrooms, generous living area, two parking spaces, private entrance, balcony, courtyard and porter. We also don’t hear any of our neighbours.

If we bought a house we wouldn’t have the location we like, but it would also be a terrace which is likely going to mean noise from neighbours each side. Its also much harder to find a house with two available parking spaces.

Aldgate East is close to mainline stations

Blackfriars
London Bridge
Liverpool Street
Cannon Street

This links go into Essex and Kent at least so look for mainline stations in these counties that feed into these l neon stations and search around these areas

I'd suggest Bromley, chistlehurst, Sevenoaks as pretty ok areas to live and commute

600k is enough for unloved parts of town definately and you would be in box seat for secondaries too which removes that worry once your child gets to Year 4 but it just depends doesnt it - there are some compromises that people can make and some that they cant.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/77139312#/
(Locals - don't come at me that this house is right by the Marsden and on a tricky rd - I know that, its just for illustration, there's loads of them at that price point.)

Yep that is near where I live and you can get a decent house for 600k and around 1hr 15 min commute to Aldgate East.

I suspect though that the idea of commuting that long comes with living in London for awhile and recognising that the majority of people who work in London live that far out.

I have colleagues who commute from Brighton and Clacton on sea 3 days a weel its fairly common

@redferrari

Aldgate East is well connected via circle and metropolitan lines so you could check areas such as Ruislip for that budget.

This is a very good call. Loads of excellent houses well within your budget in Ruislip / Eastcote area. I don't know schools there, but know people who live in the area and are very happy with the schools.

Look at areas that are an easy commute to London.
The Elizabeth Line has some good areas.

I wouldn’t automatically discount a flat for reasons other posters have said.
I live in a flat with excellent soundproofing (far far better than my friends Victorian terrace); it has a 999 year lease; a balcony and communal garden; excellent location and transport links; service charge isn’t extortionate.
It’s safe, maintenance free, the location is superb, my neighbours are great, no cladding issues.

If you can have a house in as good a location as the flat, choose the house.

There’s compromises in every purchase, but people typically buy flats if they can’t afford houses. The times when flats might be better are in large cities where they enable you to get a fab location...but only if that’s important to you and outweighs the issues to do with leases, people above or below and the fact flats without gardens have become hard to sell.

I bought a flat for exactly the same reasons, much bigger than the size of house I could afford and in a much nicer area. It’s a Victorian house divided into 3 flats, massive rooms, loads of original features and 12 foot high ceilings. I have lovely neighbours and probably hear less than I did in my previous new build semi which had paper walls. I have a 990 year lease so that’s not an issue. The only issue during lockdown has been the lack of private outside space, we do have a small communal garden but not really suitable for sitting out in or playing in. Pre Covid that wasn’t a problem as we are within a 10 minute walk of 3 lovely parks.

Having sold our London flat last year, I would avoid ever owning a flat again, simply due to being at the mercy of a leaseholder. Ours increased the service charges and sink fund by 250% over 3 years and they was nothing we could do about it. They literally gave no shits.

My friend's leaseholder hasn't responded to any letters or requests to remove her sister from her mortgage. She now can't apply for any other one as she needs his permission and is stuck on a rate which is now £300 extra per month. He has just billed all leaseholders £500 for roofworks no-one has noticed or think have actually happened and is asking for £15,000 immediately from each owner for external repairs. No-one can sell with this in motion- you wouldn't buy if you found out there was 15k expected of you. If they take him to court then that will affect selling the flats too. Another family in the same block had their sale collapse because again he didn't reply to correspondence and their buyer's mortgage offer expired and he walked.

I have another friend who can't sell or remortgage because her block is demanding 70k from each flat to replace dangerous cladding.

Flats are fine in themselves, there's no prejudice here, but the problem is being at the financial mercy of the leaseholder. There are laws in place to protect you, bit nothing is simple, cheap and my heart used to sink whenever I had a letter from them. You just never know what's coming next. X

I live in a new build flat and despite sharing the building with 40 other households, you hear nothing! The flat is much warmer and sound resistant compared to the older flats/houses I stayed in. The flat itself is 130 sqm which provides loads of space, open space and storage. My flat always looks neat and tidy because of the storage and extra space. I've viewed houses that were 40-50sqm each floor which meant that I had to spend all day living in 40-50sqm with kitchen, bathroom, lounge and dining area where you can't even swing a cat in it unless you spend so much money and knock those walls to make it open space, whereas my current flat offers that open space, large entrance and corridor, bedrooms that are like hotel rooms with a corridor and en-suite and built in wardrobes. Bathroom that is huge, separate utility area, large living room and dining space and open plan kitchen which I preferred it that way. an allocated parking space where I don't have to pay for permit or worry about who's parked in my spot with electic car charger unit and bin storage where I can dump rubbish any day and anytime I want and don't have to wait for rubbish collections. Somedays I sit at home and declutter my home particularly my ds's plastic Christmas present toys and I can throw it in the bin. I don't have to worry about bin collection dates. We have massive massive containers where we could use it as much as we want and obviously with recycling. I've seen many pros with my flat than with houses I lived in. It totally depends what you're looking for.

Buy a house if you can. Nothing but hassle living in flats with kids - read one of the hundred of grumpy neighbour threads! Fewer shared walls the better basically

We did this! We actually sold a big house in London and bought a beautiful and huge mansion flat in a great position (better than the house). The flat has almost the same useable square footage as the house but was half the price. The rooms are bigger (no wasted space with stairs, hallways etc.) and have higher ceilings, huge windows. We have Share of Freehold and huge shared gardens (some have private but we didn't want the work). We did this to free up money for a house out of London and it was a very good decision. We partly did this as we used to live in Paris and loved living on one floor.

What about schools? This might dictate where you live but definitely look out Victorian/Edwardian mansion blocks, proper period maisonettes and some of the better constructed blocks (60's/70's)as they have brilliant lateral living and less issues (including sound issues) than some conversions. No cladding issues etc.

What areas are you looking at?

A couple of examples:

underbudget:

www.onthemarket.com/details/9016943/

about right:

www.winkworth.co.uk/properties/sales/hamlet-gardens-hammersmith-w6/HAM200159

overbudget:

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/102032048#/

thank you, everyone. I will check out some of the areas mentioned. Am probably just stressing over nothing. The house in Streatham looks lovely, would anyone have any suggestions if the area is safe for families? Would you recommend it?

Ideally, we'd like to live in London for DS to experience it as a teenager but perhaps we'll end living out and for DH to commute in. Seems like a lot of people do that

London is massive but yes an awful lot live in Greater London
We can get into Waterloo (Southbank) in 30 mins. Central london/west end within an hour
Where are you currently north or south of london

At the moment, we havent moved yet but would like to once the lockdown ends and DH will have to be in the office. Trying to do as much web searching as possible and maybe even come down to visit places. A few people have suggested we rent but am a bit concerned that house prices will keep on rising and seeing as we've already sold ours then we'll be even more priced out if that makes sense. DS is 9 so in practice we are looking for someone ok with good secondaries and just hope he'll get into a primary somehow.

I'd be tempted to go for the better area

We've got 2 DC and just bought a 2 bed maisonette with garden (share of freehold) in SE London and it's all been fine so far

But then we have always lived in new build flats in blocks several storeys high (not high rise) or cramped 2 bed terrace which was our last rental

Also the maisonette was the max we could afford, even the small terrace houses were way out of our budget

We didn't change area so we've bought in a place we're very familiar with and love, DC1 has not had to change primary school which has been a massive bonus

House prices in London are falling, so don’t worry about them rising much for a year or two. I’d definitely rent for a bit if I were you.

Rent a flat, then buy a house when you're more sure about area etc. London prices have been dropping and are likely to stay fairly steady.
Though flats might drop more than houses.

Streatham is lovely and on the up. It's close to Brixton, Balham, Herne Hill and Tooting too, which all have really great benefits and character. Enjoy! X

There are lots of factors at issue (eg difference in area, would you have a garden in the flat, how big is the flat really) but personally I would go for the house.

Speaking from personal experience as we have just sold our two bed flat and are buying a small house very slightly further out. We had massive issues with our downstairs neighbour in the flat and couldn't wait to be out of there. We're also glad to be out of a leasehold with constantly being bound by freeholder consent when we want to do a bit of work/you might face service charges.

Of course houses have their downsides too (eg you're responsible if the roof needs fixing) but in my opinion they're outweighed by the drawbacks of a flat (especially if you manage to find a house in a fairly decent area).